Building a beaver paradise
ERIN MCDAID of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust on exciting plans to bring back a population of beavers to the county for the first time in 400 years
WE’RE hugely excited to have the opportunity to create a little piece of beaver paradise at what is by far our largest site – the spectacular Idle Valley Nature Reserve just outside Retford in North Nottinghamshire.
The exciting project to return beavers to our county after an absence of over 400 years is also a very productive one.
Beavers’ capacity to help shape the landscape and create beneficial conditions for other wildlife is now much more widely understood and they are regarded as nature’s finest wetland engineers.
We want to harness their desire to chew through trees, dig pools and create channels to unlock the wildlife potential of this amazing site.
Covering over 375 hectares on the west bank of the River Idle, the site has vast open skies and abundant wildlife across wetland, woodland and meadows.
Like Attenborough, it is a former sand and gravel extraction complex, but being over 50% larger there is huge untapped potential for habitat restoration.
Caring for such a large site is a challenge, but by harnessing natural processes through the introduction of beavers and the expansion of our conservation grazing programme we hope to improve habitat for everything from dragonflies to otters and the wetland birds for which the nature reserve is best known – helping us to put Idle Valley Nature Reserve on the map as an inspiring wildlife destination.
Prior to a visit last year by renowned beaver reintroduction experts Derek Gow & Roisin Campbell-palmer, we planned to create a beaver enclosure of around 13 hectares.
Their view that the site was perfect for beavers gave us the confidence to ramp up the scale of our ambition and we now plan a 55ha beaver zone.
Many UK beaver projects have released just one or two adults but we will have space for up to three families.
As we embark on a truly ambitious nature recovery mission to establish a wildlife network across Nottinghamshire, with at least 30% of land and water managed for nature by 2030, large-scale restoration of habitats on sites in our care, such as the Idle Valley Nature Reserve, will be vital.
Earlier this week we launched a £250,000 appeal to fund investment at Idle Valley Nature so that we can bring back beavers and fund other vital work across the site as part of our wider efforts to secure nature’s recovery.
Bringing beavers back to Nottinghamshire will kick-start our efforts to make the site even richer for wildlife and to create a wealth of opportunities for people to see and connect with nature.
We have also launched an online survey so that people can have their say on our exciting plans and record local wildlife sightings to help us gauge the value of nearby gardens, parks and towns as wildlife corridors linking the Idle Valley Nature Reserve and our sites across Nottinghamshire. We’ve already had over 500 responses and we’d be delighted to hear the views of Nottingham Post readers.
For further details about the planned reintroduction of beavers and how to take part in the online survey, visit nottinghamshirewildlife.org/beavers